Westinghouse's LD-3255 isn't quite small enough to be considered a compact dorm-room-size HDTV, nor is it large enough to serve as a full-blown home theater centerpiece. Priced at $429, this 32-inch model makes for a very affordable second or third flat-panel TV for the bedroom or den, and it's a power miser that costs next-to-nothing to operate. At this price, though, there are sacrifices to be made: The panel does not support full 1080p HD resolution, and it suffers from a few performance flaws, including lackluster colors and narrow viewing angles.

The TV's glossy black bezel surrounding the 32-inch panel measures 1.25 inches wide around the top and sides, while the curved bottom bezel is more than twice the as thick at 2.75 inches. The black gives way to a clear finish around the edges with a thin red accent in between. The LD-3255, which measures 1.5 inches at its thickest point, thanks to the use of side-lit LEDs, is supported by a teardrop shaped stand with a narrow mounting arm, which makes the 14.6-pound cabinet a bit wobbly. Still, it's an improvement over the stand on last year's Westinghouse SK26H640G ($349 list, ), which was not only unsteady, but pitched the screen at a downward angle. The 5-watt speakers embedded in the lower cabinet deliver moderately loud audio and sound best when the SRS surround effect is enabled, but if you're looking for deep bass, you won't find it here.

There are six buttons located on the right side of the TV for tweaking picture, audio and parental control settings, and for changing channels, selecting an input source, and adjusting the volume. As was the case with the SK26H640G, the LD-3255 offers only three preset backlighting levels (Bright, Medium, and Dark). The Bright setting produced the best overall picture while the other two were overly dark. Of the five available picture settings (Movie, Custom, Showroom, Game, and Sports) the Movie preset offers the best all around image quality for watching HD programming. You won't find advanced settings such as gamma, white balance, and individual color adjustments, but you can choose one of three color temperatures, and tweak sharpness and saturation levels.

The 6.9-inch remote crams 44 smallish buttons on its compact face; none of them are illuminated, and you won't find any player controls. In addition to a number pad, a four-way rocker, Channel, and Volume buttons, and an input selector, there's an aspect ratio button, an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) key, a Menu key, and a Closed Captioning key. Several of the additional buttons included here aren't supported on this model, and they occupy valuable space.

A/V ports are scarce: You only get two HDMI ports on this model, but they're conveniently located on the left side of the cabinet just below an SPDIF optical audio output. Here you'll also find a USB jack, but it's reserved as a service port, so you can't pop in a USB key with pictures, audio, or video files and play them back on the TV. Rear-accessible ports include a coaxial TV jack, one set of composite A/V ports, a PC audio input, a VGA input, and stereo audio output jacks. There are no component connections but you can use the included VGA dongle to connect to devices with component outputs. Missing is an Ethernet port, which means there are no interactive Web applications like you'll find on most mainstream HDTVs on the market today.

The 32-inch panel has a maximum resolution of 1366 by 768, which means you can't view video in full HD. (If you must have 1080p, the virtually identical $479 LD-3285 gets you there for only $50 more.) That said, the LD-3255 delivers a sharp 720p picture with a respectable contrast ratio of 2696:1—as measured with Konica CS-200 ChromaMeter after a basic darkroom calibration. Test patterns from the DisplayMate diagnostic suite revealed good accuracy, but the colors were not nearly as vivid as they are on more expensive sets such as Panasonic's 50-inch TC-P50G25 plasma ($1,499.95 list, ) or the 47-inch LG 47LE5500 ($2,099.99 list, ).

While watching this set, you'll want to get as close to dead center as you can. Viewing-angle performance is less than stellar; during testing, I experienced considerable color shifting from the sides with flesh tones taking on a greenish hue. Scenes from The Green Zone on Blu-ray disc were detailed and largely noise-free, but remember, this isn't a 1080p panel. And with a 60Hz response rate there was some evidence of jaggies in standard definition material, but they were minor, and not detrimental to overall picture quality.

The LD-3255 drew an average of 38 watts of power while displaying a Blu-ray movie in the Movie picture preset in my tests. That's approximately half the power needed to run the Westinghouse SK26H640G, a 26-inch CCFL-backlit model. Based on the 2009 national average cost of 11.55 cents per KWh, the LD-3255 will cost you just 67 cents per month in utility fees, or around $8.00 per year. Outstanding energy efficiency and the use of recycled materials and soy-based inks on the TV's packaging earn the LD-3255 our GreenTech seal of approval.

As with most budget HDTVs, you get what you pay for, and the Westinghouse LD-3255 is no exception. For $429 you get a thin HDTV that's very energy efficient and delivers a sharp 720p picture—but that's about it. You won't get state-of-the-art TV tech or any extra features. For $50 more, you can move up to the same-size 1080p Westinghouse LD-3285. Another small screen option: The ViewSonic VT2730 ($499 direct, ) also offers excellent energy efficiency, but also a better all-around picture on a 27-inch display.

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As a Contributing Editor for PC Magazine, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, HDTVs, PCs, servers, and other assorted hardware and peripherals for more than 14 years. A 13-year veteran of PC Magazine's Labs (most recently as Director of Operations), John was responsible for the recruitment, training and management of the Labs technical staff, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of the Labs testing machines and procedures.
Prior to joining Ziff Davis Publishing, John spent six years in retail operations for Federated...
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